Doors of the type referred to are usually provided with rollers which cooperate with two tracks, one at each side, in order to permit such doors when closed to move from a vertical position to a horizontal over head open door position. The tracks at their upper ends are curved approximately 90.degree. and generally continue in a horizontal direction inside the upper part of the garage space. In order to accomodate the movement around the curved portions of the track, doors so mounted are usually made up of a plurality of horizontally disposed panels hingedly connected together at their adjacent inner corners so as to collectively constitute the complete door.
The hinges are horizontally disposed and are usually located on the inside surface of the respective door panels whereby the axes of the hinges lie in a plane closely adjacent the plane of the inner surface of the door. When door constructions of this type are moved from horizontal open position to vertical closed position, a v-shaped gap is created between adjacent edges of each pair of cooperating panels during the period when the panels move around the curved portions of the tracks. The gaps so created start respectively to close and continue to close as each pair of adjacent panels approach a common vertical position during the door closing movement.
Great danger exists to the operator during this period as he may inadvertently get one or more fingers in one of the gaps during the downward movement of the door with the result that his finger or fingers may be severely injured. Doors of this type are generally quite heavy and even though their downward movement is usually countered with springs or weights such doors when closing attain a substantial momentum which develops a destructive force especially at the location of the closing edges at the gaps referred to.
Protection to the operator when manipulating doors of this type is especially important when it is realized that after closing movement of the door has been initiated by the use of a handle usually provided on one of the lower panels, the operator is sometimes inclined to reach up, during the downward movement and in order to further enhance the closing movement to place the fingers of one or both hands on the upper edge of the then top most vertically disposed panel, made accessible by the created gap, and impart to the door a further downward pull. If the gap at the location of the operators fingers should close before they are removed, serious injury will result.